Don't completely buy the colors on the map.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politic...election_x.htm
Dems gain in 'hidden election'
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Bernie Buescher is no John Kerry — and for that, Colorado Democrats are grateful.
The businessman from Grand Junction, Colo., won 55% of the vote to become a Democratic state representative in a county that supported Republican President Bush by a 2-to-1 ratio.
And Buescher was not alone.
Democrats had great success in state legislative races this year, even as they performed poorly in the presidential race and campaigns for Congress. Many Democratic gains came in the heart of Republican territory.
Colorado Democrats took control of both the House and Senate for the first time since 1974. Montana Democrats won the state Senate and could control the state House, depending on the outcome of a legislative race that finished in a tie and is the subject of a court battle.
Overall, Democrats took power in seven legislatures and earned a tie in the Iowa Senate. Republicans won control in four chambers and added legislators in southern states that have been shifting to the party for 20 years.
Nationwide, Democrats added more than 60 legislative seats, reversing the 2002 results that gave Republicans more state legislators than Democrats for the first time in a half century.
Democratic state legislators now outnumber Republicans by two: 3,658 to 3,656. A pair of undecided races could leave it tied.
"It was like a hidden election," says Tim Storey, political analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "The result was remarkable and not easy to explain."
The number of legislatures changing control is not unusual, Storey says. The oddity was that the most successful party in local races was beaten so thoroughly at the top of the ticket.
Storey says it's too early to tell whether the results were a statistical blip or an indication that Democrats are making progress at the grass-roots level.
The results are likely to cause only minor shifts in policy. Tax increases are off the agenda in virtually every state. Colorado businesses may not get a property-tax cut they wanted. And tort reform may struggle in some states.
Divided governments
State governments remain politically divided. Democrats control the governor's office and state legislature in only seven states. Republicans control 12 states. Twenty-nine states have divided government, with one party controlling at least one legislative chamber or the governor's mansion. (Nebraska has a non-partisan legislature, and the Washington governor's race is unsettled.)
Democratic and Republican party officials attribute the election results mostly to local factors, such as redistricting and name recognition of individual candidates. Republicans also were hurt by divisions within their party, mostly between social conservatives and moderates but also between Republicans competing for leadership positions.
In North Carolina, a fight among Republicans over who should be House speaker in the last Legislature left the party bitterly divided. Dissidents were given limited party support and did poorly on Election Day.
North Carolina Democrats won back control of the House and increased their lead in the Senate, even as voters rejected Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.
"A lot of voters in North Carolina are not comfortable with the national Democratic Party, at least as represented by Sen. Kerry," says state Rep. Joe Hackney, the House Democratic leader. "But they are very comfortable with state Democratic leadership as represented by Gov. Mike Easley."
In Montana, which Bush won with 59% of the vote, Democrats took control of the Senate 27-23. Before the election, Republicans had a 29-21 majority.
"To label Montana as a 'red' state based purely on the presidential race ignores what's happening at the local level," says Brad Martin, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party.
Appeal to swing voters
Martin says many hunters and other sportsmen in Montana are swing voters turned off by Republican policies they view as anti-conservation — support for mining, logging and drilling for oil and gas.
Montana Republican Party executive director Chuck Denowh agrees that the GOP is struggling to keep the sportsmen in the fold.
"People who normally vote Republican on the gun issue are straying," he says. "Whenever we're allied with the extractive industries, timber and mining, we have a hard time defining the issue to show we also support conservation."
But Denowh says an unfavorable redrawing of legislative districts by an independent commission was the biggest factor behind his party's poor showing.
He expects Republicans to regain control of the Legislature in the next election.
In Colorado, conservative and moderate Republicans feuded on issues ranging from school vouchers to the budget. "Fratricide in the Colorado GOP" is how a Denver Post columnist explained Republicans losing power in both legislative chambers.
Leaders of both parties also agree that Democrats mastered new voter-imposed limits on campaign contributions by individuals in legislative races.
The big money this year came from outside groups not officially tied to a campaign or political party. Four wealthy Democrats contributed more than $1.5 million to a fund that ran ads in legislative campaigns.
"The Democrats had the good fortune to find four individuals who would write endless checks with the sole purpose of electing Democratic state legislators," says Ted Halaby, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. "We didn't have a Big Four."
Julie DeWoody, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, says the recruitment of strong candidates and voter anger over state budget problems also played a big role in her party's success.
Buescher's race is a good example. He was chairman of the local hospital and a well-known businessman whose family had been in Grand Junction for three generations. Leading Democrats, including state Attorney General Ken Salazar, who won a U.S. Senate seat Nov. 2, urged him to run.
The seat was being vacated by a moderate Republican who left because of term limits. In a divisive Republican primary, a social conservative who stressed opposition to abortion and gay marriage defeated a moderate. Many Republicans refused to endorse their candidate. Some actively supported Buescher.
"Voters want legislators who are going to craft practical solutions to real problems," Buescher says. "In my race and throughout the state, there was a rejection of ideological-based candidates."
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